


The Doctor's Daughters

by snowflake123



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Between adventures, Gen, Gettig to know the characters a bit more, History class gets a tad more interesting, Long lost Twins (I guess), Middle schoolers are mean, Mild Language, Occasional companion, Origin Story, Original Character(s), POV Female Character, POV First Person, Paranoia, Past lives(ish), Set in America then London, keeping secrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 02:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6836161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowflake123/pseuds/snowflake123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A long time ago on Gallifrey, two girls were born, Catherine and Tara. They weren't safe however and at the age of eight they were brought to earth to be raised by a different family for a few years. How their dad met the parents they grew up with isn't completely clear and doesn't make a lot of sense and eventually the girls dropped the subject. Now their dad is back and they're not completely sure if they want to go back with him. The story is told from Tara's point of view and she tries her hardest to remember everything that's happened to them up until that point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about writing Catherine and Tara's past for a while now so that everyone gets a chance to learn more about them instead of mildly questioning how they ended up with the lives they did. And I'm just seeing how much attention this gets, I'll write more if gets a decent amount of attention.

Hey, wow never thought I’d get to talk about my life before. Where to start? From the beginning I guess, my name is Tara Diana Heart. The middle and last name was given to me when I came to this world when I was about eight years old, and technically I don’t exist. Here’s why, when I was a kid, I’m eighteen now by the way and I guess according to earth standards I’m a Gemini or something like that, anyway when I was a kid a war was going on back home. Mom and dad were recruited to save the whole of creation and time itself, and when I was eight I was brought here, in America more specifically, I know dad makes a lot of trips to London, and given a chance to live a semi-normal life. I had believed that the family I grew up with was my family, which was good I guess. The parents who adopted me had met my dad at some point in their lives I suppose and found a way to keep in touch? I don’t know, they didn’t explain that very well to me. At twelve I learned I wasn’t really like them and had a hard time believing them. It took me about maybe three years to accept it as fact. My best friend, well who I thought was my best friend, was really my twin sister, whom I was separated from for some strange reason. Learned that later on down the road too, I still can’t believe that this was kept secret the whole time. This is a story about me and my sister Catherine, recounting everything we did after or in between when dad had a companion or two. It gives you a feel for who we are and how we played a bit of a role in dad’s life, getting him back into the swing of being a parent again after about five years or so. I don’t remember a lot when I was eight and younger, just a lot of arguing and fighting between me and Catherine and us getting sent to our rooms a lot. But I will be doing my best to recount everything that happened afterward, just hang in there with me okay? Great, then without further delay let’s get started.


	2. Chapter 1: Ending of the School Year but With a New Teacher

So the year starts off in two thousand eleven, when I was twelve years old. Here in America the schooling system is much different, it goes elementary school which is kindergarten to fifth grade, then middle school and its sixth to eighth grade and then with high school ninth through twelfth. Anyway, it was my last year of middle school, even though it was spring the mornings were freezing cold and they made us wait outside until the bell rang. There were your groups or cliques, whatever you wanted to call them. I was with mine, a group of really good friends circled tightly around each other trying to keep warm. We were going on about how cold it was and how it was complete bull that we had to stand outside, but we all knew that the day would warm up like it always did. We were also really excited to be almost done with school for the year, I mean what kid isn’t come on. My group of friends consisted of my best friend Catherine, a good, yet short, but still good friend of ours named Kate, and a few others. We were smiling and giggling like idiots as we made quiet comments about teachers as they passed by and some other students there that we may or may not have liked, but that’s a story for another time. As we were talking my, as my parents, family, and friends lovingly called it, “sixth sense”, but is actually extreme paranoia, started picking up. I wanted to look over my shoulder but that sense told me not to. I tried to shove it down and ignore it but that was pretty hard to do when it started screaming at me. I dared to glance over my shoulder but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary but that feeling didn’t go away. Instead it got worse, it got to the point where I was looking every ten to fifteen seconds. My friends noticed this and asked me what was wrong, I simply waved them off and said it was nothing.

“Is it your sixth sense?” Catherine teased me, smiling as she said this.

“Shut up.” I nudged her in the shoulder for emphasis. “There’s nothing wrong with being a little paranoid.”

“Except when it’s every day, I think you should talk to someone about it.”

“What like see a therapist?” I raised a questioning eyebrow at her, making my glasses slide down my face. Back before I became not human my vision was pretty screwed up and needed help seeing things at a distance. Anyway, I slid them back into place as I continued. “I’m not _that_ screwed up in the head Catherine, I’m fine trust me.”

Catherine and Kate traded looks with each other before letting the matter drop. The paranoid feeling eventually started to go away when the bell finally rang and we were herded inside like cattle ready for slaughter, except we were slowing being put down with boring classes that I felt we didn’t need. I mean math, English and science sure we needed to know that but history and P.E? No thank you, don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with those classes in themselves, it’s just not something I’m too interested in. The start to the day was pretty slow and I was half asleep by the time I went to history class, thank god I didn’t have to suffer through that in the morning. When I walked in to history class though, that paranoid feeling from earlier was back and more intense than ever. I threw that occasional look over my shoulder, sitting at the back of the class and next to the door didn’t make it any better either. The teacher wasn’t there and we had enough time to do a few things before class started so I thought I’d step out for a moment to take a walk and get a drink of water. I have a stone necklace that I’ve had for as long as I can remember, out of nervous habit I grabbed on to it for a sense of security while I walked only letting go to pull my hair back and use the water fountain. I never felt that feeling of ease as I walked back, in fact I felt the need to run back to class. But I didn’t, I forced myself to keep my steps light as I walked back. Entering the classroom I took my seat and got ready for class to start. Activity had died down in the halls, letting everyone know that class was about to start. As it got closer to time there was still no sign of the teacher.

 _Odd._ I thought. _Normally she’s here by now, where is she?_

The others started whispering amongst themselves about the teacher being late, they were convinced we weren’t going to have class today and could use this time to just mess around and talk to each other. Our school rule was if the teacher wasn’t there fifteen minutes after class started then we could have a study hall. After about four or five minutes I started to believe it myself and was actually looking forward to it. That is until the door opened and we all turned to look to see who it was, disappointed we weren’t going to have our free time we were greeted with a very enthusiastic.

“Good afternoon boys and girls. Sorry for running a bit late, got held up talking with your principle, nice guy.” He walked in with a big smile on his face, it looked a bit lopsided too. He obviously didn’t get the memo of dress nice but not too nice, he wore a blue suit and red converse which was strange but entertaining, he had a brown bag or case of some kind with him, he also had brown eyes and brown, very spiky, hair. What got me was the way he talked, obviously not from here, and unlike everybody in class I watched way too many British TV shows so I could easily understand what he was saying. Great, we were going to have one of those kind of substitutes. The ones who just loved teaching kids like us, the ones who don’t want to learn certain things but we have to because it’s required. The entire class physically and verbally groaned as he walked in, the smile he had was quickly replaced with a disappointed frown.

“Come now this lesson doesn’t have to be boring, if you try hard enough it can be fun.” He set his things down at the teacher’s desk when he reached it.

What was up with this substitute? Guess he really liked his job or something, the others started talking amongst themselves again but this time about our sub as he got things ready. A girl I sat next to beckoned me to lean in as she whispered in my ear, asking me what I thought about him. I simply shrugged and said I didn’t know what I was thinking, he was weird that was for sure but then again we’re all a little weird. The whispering in the class slowly increased in volume as the others slowly drifted from the substitute to not being able to have that free time.

“This sucks.” A boy in my class raised his voice over the din of the class, intentionally trying to be heard by someone. He got the teacher’s attention for he looked up and seemed rather confused.

“What does?”

I couldn’t resist, I had to say something in response. “He’s just sour because we thought we wouldn’t have to learn today.”

He looked directly at me as he asked. “Why wouldn’t you want to learn about America’s history?”

“Because this class is almost as boring as the events back then which is as old as dirt.” Duncan, our class clown, answered back. Everybody kind of lost it, we all started laughing at what he said. Hey, we were like twelve we found anything hysterical.

“Alright everyone settle down.” He tried to get control back over the class, some of us listened the rest were still snickering as he went on. “Maybe it’s boring because your teacher never found a way to make it more interesting.”

“How about you start with introducing yourself like normal substitutes?” Someone shouted from across the room, everyone fell silent then. We had all forgotten that he never said who he was. The sub even looked like he had forgotten the moment he walked into our class room. It was dead quiet for a solid minute, you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet before the sub simply gave a small smile and single nod.

“Of course, how rude of me. You can call me Mr. Smith and I’ll be your substitute teacher for the next few days. Now, about making class fun.”

The class groaned again, how many days is the next few days? Two, three, rest of the week, two weeks? We don’t know, but apparently he was determined to make our class fun. Was that even humanly possible? Probably, in all honesty I didn’t really care I just wanted to pass. I also felt kind of bad for Mr. Smith because in a day or so he was in for a trip to hell. Some of these students are mean, they’ll find something they don’t like about someone and give them a hard time about it for the rest of the school year. No doubt they were already trying to find those things about this guy. He turned his back to the class to write down the lesson plan our usual teacher had set up for that day and already I could see kids getting spitballs ready, I cringed and just looked down, hiding my face as the girl next to me did the same.

I don’t think anyone was trying to hit him because all of their ammo hit the marker board, desk, and anything else the spitballs could come into contact with. I winced when I heard the pencil container get hit and fall over, yeah I’m going to talk to him after class and give him a heads up with this class just because I felt so bad for him. I don’t think it bothered him though because he didn’t really react to it as much as we thought he would. When I looked up I noticed that he had turned around and didn’t look happy, but also didn’t look mad if that makes sense. He just kind of looked like a disappointed dad, and that made me wonder if he was a dad.

“Right then, whose idea was this?” He questioned, his tone was calm but also stern. The ones who did it shifted in their seats and looked down, giving themselves away including the girl next to me. I looked at her as she slid down in her seat, a defense mechanism we all had when we knew we were in trouble. Mr. Smith simply nodded as he said. “I’ll speak with you all after class.”

 _Busted._ I thought, I had to bite down on my lower lip to keep from smiling. After that incident he continued on like nothing had happened, going over what we did the day before and introducing us to the new material. He actually kept his word in making history fun, we were up and active, re-enacting the battle scenes that we came across. It was so much fun that we all forgot about our great disdain for the subject. We were all a little disappointed when the bell rang and we had to go to our next class.

“Don’t forget to read chapter 8 tonight when you get home!” He called after the class as we filed out. I tried to get ahead of the trouble makers that were caught earlier in class to give him my warning.

I held my things close to my chest as I approached the desk, pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose I said to him. “Mr. Smith?”

He looked up at me and smiled. “Hello, what can I do for you,” He looked down at the seating chart where it had our picture and name under them. “Tara?”

“I felt bad about what the trouble makers did earlier, I felt I should let you know that there are some pretty mean kids in here. They like to give people a hard time about who they are, just thought you should know.”

“Got that figured out by now don’t you think?” He wasn’t trying to sound rude about it, he smiled as he spoke which I guess meant it was supposed to be in light humor.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I smiled back at him.

“If that’s all Miss Heart I suggest you hurry on to your next class before you run late.”

“Yes sir, see you tomorrow.” I turned and made my way to my locker to switch out books and other things. The day progressed on like any other day, nothing too exciting really but the strange thing was I was looking forward to going to history class the next day. I actually read the chapter we were supposed to read that night and came in knowing what I was supposed to.

The weird thing is, I still don’t really care much for history. To those who do I’m sorry, it just kind of bores me. Anyway, we were all pretty excited to get to class. It was also parent teacher conferences that night so we tried our hardest to be on our best behavior so that our sub would say good things about us. Or at least I think he was going to be there, I’m not sure how that works. These substitute teacher rules are weird, but that’s beside the point.

So before class started we always had a little bit of time in between classes to talk to and hang out with our friends. I talked to mine for a little while and was telling them about Mr. Smith and how he made history class interesting. They looked at me like I had two heads, they knew history wasn’t everybody’s strong suit and they most definitely knew it wasn’t mine. I did my best to explain to them that it wasn’t the class in itself it was more or less the teacher because he actually cared if we did well or not. That was a first for everyone. I would’ve like to talk to them more about it but we were running out of time and had to go soon. So with a quick goodbye we hurried off to class. The kids in my class were eagerly talking amongst themselves, asking each other what they thought we were going to do in class today. I was pretty excited myself, for once in my life I didn’t mind not knowing what we were going to do that day. Some of the kids in my class were also pretty worried with parent teacher conferences coming up soon, they were supposed to happen at the end of that week. We were going back and forth from one thing to another while we waited for Mr. Smith to walk in with our lesson plan.

As the time past he still hadn’t shown up, we were all starting to get a little worried. We thought that maybe our usual teacher had returned and she was taking her time coming to class and have go back to the old ways of doing things. Since I was placed at the back of the class and right next to the door, I was put on door duty to watch for anyone if somebody decided to show up. I was a little annoyed but understood everyone’s logic behind that idea, so I looked out the little window that was next to the door every two or three minutes. The fifteen minute waiting period before we could all go for study hall was getting closer and closer. I had decided to get up and stand next to the window knowing that I’d be able to see more if I were next to it instead of looking over my shoulder every now and then. Turns out what I was thinking was a great idea because when it hit the ten minute mark I saw Mr. Smith walking towards our classroom. 

“Guys he’s coming, t-minus ten seconds before he walks in. Take your places everyone.”

It’s amazing that everyone listened to me at all, but once I gave them their heads and sat down myself everyone was seated and eagerly waiting for him to walk into the room. We all turned to watch him enter the room when he got there, we were all silent and quietly hoping he’d have something witty or funny to say. But he was quiet, and that worried us a little, he didn’t smile at us, didn’t greet the class, nothing. I waited for him to set his things down on the desk before hesitantly raising my hand and saying.

“Mr. Smith? Sir? Is everything okay? You didn’t greet the class like you normally do.”

He looked up at me and suddenly his smile was back as he responded with. “You’re a clever one Miss Heart, picking up the differences in people no matter how small they are. No nothing’s wrong, I was just talking with your school principle again. Turns out your usual teacher won a contest and moved to the Bahamas. So, until the school can find you a new history teacher I’ll be teaching the class for the rest of the year. I was also given permission to talk to your parents at conferences this Friday. Is there anyone’s parents I’ll get the chance to meet?”

Everyone’s hand shot up the moment he asked that, after that we all had a bit of a celebration knowing that he was going to be our new history teacher for the rest of the year. I have never liked a teacher so much before in my entire life, I was so thrilled to hear that he was here to stay for the last month of school. It felt like a small win, and as the rest of the week went on we all discovered that we were remembering everything that Mr. Smith was teaching us. Soon before we knew it Friday was upon us, normally when my dad went to talk to my teachers I would always stay home because I was so afraid of what the teacher would say about me and I was scared that if for some reason the teacher said something bad about me then I would get in trouble for it. But this time around I begged my dad to take me with him, I guess I was eager to see what Mr. Smith had to say about me.

After a lot of begging, pleading, and deal making dad finally relented and let me go with him. I sat in the back of his car and happily looked out the window as we went to the school. There were quite a bit of people, mostly parents, waiting around in the commons area to speak with the teachers. There weren’t many people waiting for my history teacher so we went to speak with him first. Mr. Smith was grading a few papers when we walked in to the room. He looked up and smile at my dad and I as he stood up and reached to take my dad’s hand in greeting.

My dad took a little bit to introduce himself to my teacher, he had that look of recognition like they had met before. Just because I felt like my dad forgot how to speak I nudged him in the side and said.

“Dad, this is Mr. Smith my new history teacher. My previous one won a contest I guess and moved somewhere else. Mr. Smith, this is my dad-” I was beaten to the point as he finished my sentence for me.

“Austin Heart, yes we’ve met before when he was in his late twenties and he was dating a kind woman. What was her name again? Brianna?”

“That’s my mom.”

“Is she?” He let go of my dad’s hand and we sat down to get started.

“Yeah.” My dad answered. “Tara has a brother and sister too. Jake and Jezebel, Jessie for short.”

“Congratulations on the happy family.”

There was something that they weren’t telling me I just knew it, and I didn’t like not being in the loop. I dug my heels in as I started questioning them.

“Dad, is there something you’re not telling me? How long have you two known each other?”

“You were always quick to get the answers you wanted.” Mr. Smith commented, his hands were folded on the table top and gaze was lowered slightly. He had that sad look that only a parent could have.

“What do you mean?” I looked to my dad. “What’s he talking about?”

Dad and Mr. Smith traded looks before returning their gaze to me. I didn’t like the look they were giving me, something cold sat in my stomach and I felt like I was going to be sick. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the answer to my question anymore, not of they were going to look at me like that.


	3. Chapter 2: Tell the truth

They were still looking at me with that solemn look, I could see the way they were thinking about what they wanted to tell me. There was a creepy silence to the room too and a cold chill worked its way down my back. I didn’t mean to say what I did, nothing was listening to me. Everything just went on its own accord, I slowly stood and backed up and nearly demanded.

“Dad, tell me what’s going on. You know I hate being in the dark about things, especially if it’s really important and you know I should know about it.”

Both dad and Mr. Smith stood up, dad walked over to me while Mr. Smith stayed by the desk. Dad dropped to eye level and placed his hands on my shoulders, he opened his mouth a few times to say something but nothing came out. He just kind of looked at me with a look of guilt, like he just betrayed his oldest daughter someway, somehow. I didn’t understand what was going on and my defense mechanism was to start tearing up and getting really upset.

“Dad.” My voice cracked and sounded pathetic and weak. “What’s going on? Tell me.”

“Austin, maybe we shouldn’t talk about it here. Is there somewhere we can go to talk in private?”

“Yeah there is. But it depends on whether or not you’re going to keep up this teacher act.”

Act? What exactly did dad mean by that? This was so frustrating but I was also really scared at the same time. There was something going on that they didn’t want to tell me for some reason. I just wanted some answers, was that too much to ask for? I pushed dad’s hands off my shoulders and willed myself to become calm again. Taking a deep breath I relaxed my breathing and got my heart to slow down. Oh by the way, did I mention that my heart was racing while they were having their weird conversation? No? I’m sorry, yeah my heart was racing while they were talking to each other.

Once I caught my breath, I looked dad in the eyes as I repeated myself. “Dad, tell me right now what you two are talking about. What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”

Instead of answering up front, dad simply rose to his feet, placed his hand on my shoulder, guided me out of the classroom and called over his shoulder. “Coming Mr. Smith?”

I looked over mine to see if he was going to follow us out. Probably should’ve guessed that he would considering he was hiding something too and dad was in cahoots with him. It doesn’t take a genius to guess where we went next after Mr. Smith shut off the lights to the classroom and closed the door. Dad had parked in the front of the school even though there weren’t that many parking spaces in front. We were going home, I suppose it was the most private place dad could think of at the moment considering I had quickly caught on to whatever they were talking about. At the time I thought I was a super sleuth, I was twelve cut me some slack. I didn’t look at anyone or say anything on the way back home. In all honesty it felt weird to have a teacher in the car with us, not to mention that it was one of my teachers.

The ride back home was really quiet, nobody talked, the radio wasn’t on, and it was just really quiet. For some people, I guess that would be a good thing but this wasn’t a normal kind of quiet it was an eerie quiet. Like nobody didn’t want to say anything because if they did it would break the trance everyone was in or maybe they would say something that didn’t help the situation whatsoever. Thank whatever deity that was out there and listening to a scared little twelve year old girl that we didn’t live very far away from the school for after about maybe six or seven minutes we were pulling into the driveway. Once dad put the car in park, I quickly hopped out and went for the front door. Mom and Dad gave me my own key the minute I was in middle school, once I was in the house I made a break for it to my room locking myself in. I didn’t feel ready to hear what they were going to say and I was really scared.

It wasn’t too long when I heard the front door open and close again, followed by their footsteps on the hardwood floor. I rose from my corner and carefully made my way to my door, pressing my ear to it I listened to them talk. It was fairly muffled but I managed to catch what they were talking about.

“Where did she go?”

“Probably to her room, that’s where she normally goes when she’s upset or scared.”

“Why would she be scared?”

“She’s probably not ready to hear what her “teacher” has to say about who she really is. She’s used to living this life, does she have a choice on whether or not she wants to go with you again?” There was sarcasm in dad’s voice when he said teacher.

“Of course she does, I’ve never made her do anything she didn’t want to do. Well, except when she fell out of a tree and hurt herself when she four.”

I frowned in confusion, what they were saying didn’t make any sense. Not ready to hear what I really am, so I’m not a Heart? Is that what they mean? If so then at least I have a choice to go with who I thought was my teacher but apparently not. So who was he to me? I put my ear to the door and listened again, they were moving about so it was a little hard to hear what they were saying.

“You should go talk to her, convince her to come out of her room.”

“You’re her biological father, you talk to her. You haven’t seen her in four or more years.”

I snorted, that was pretty funny. They sounded like school boys arguing about who was going to do something stupid first before the other, and I would know I hear it every other day on the playground at school. I heard somebody sigh before giving in to the other, I assumed dad, the one Mr. Smith referred to as Austin earlier that evening, had given him the look that only parents can give when trying to get their kids to tell the truth about anything they did wrong. I took a few steps back as a set of footsteps came up the stairs and made their way to my bedroom door. It wasn’t too hard to figure out which room was mine, it was at the end of the hall with a sign that read _Tara’s private domain, DO NOT ENTER_.

The footsteps fell short just outside my door, there was a pause I thought whoever was out there was admiring my craftsmanship of my sign before a knock came from the other side. I was pretty hesitant to open the door, I had to steel myself and summon enough courage to even go near it. I eventually got the courage to let in whoever was waiting and put on a brave face.

“Hello, nice sign.” Mr. Smith was trying to sound kind about it. It payed off for I smiled as I looked down and said.

“Thanks, it took over a week to make.”

“Did it? It looks very well made. May I?” He gestured to my room behind me.

“It’s kind of a mess, I sort of let it explode over the weekend but sure I suppose.” I stepped out of the way to make space and let him in. He took a look around the smallish room as he walked in. It felt the slightest bit embarrassing considering all the posters and weird knick knacks on shelves on the walls along with dirty clothes strewn about the floor instead of being in the dirty clothes hamper that sat in the corner of my room. I started to clean up a bit while he looked at the weird trinkets that I had collected and stuck on a shelf.

“Most of those have stories behind them.” I said as I stuck my clothes in the hamper.

“What about this one?” He held a grey fob watch in his hand, I walked over to take it from him to give it a once over.

“All except that one, I don’t remember how I got that one. I think maybe it was a birthday gift when I turn maybe eight or nine.” I gave it back for him to look at it some more.

“What would you say if I told you I knew exactly how you got something like this?” He was turning it in his hand and sat down on my bed.

I walked over and sat down next to him as I said. “I’d call you crazy but listen to what you had to say.”

He smiled at me after I said that. “Good, it’s always good to listen to what people have to say. Would you like to hear how I know where you got this from?”

I shrugged. “Sure, I’ll humor you. How did I get that?”

“About four years ago, there was a war going on back where you really come from. A whole separate planet actually. It was written that when the children turn eight years old that they were recruited to an academy to learn basically what you’re learning here but there’s more to it than that. You would have also learned how to be a fighter and eventually join the battle when you were old enough and if it was still going on. The day after you and your sister turned eight, with your mother’s permission, I brought you here where you would be safe and come back when everything was fine again. But now our planet is sort of lost, so we can’t go back there.”

“Okay, that doesn’t really explain that though.” I nodded towards the watch still in his hand.

“Ah this old thing. This has your original DNA inside, everything that you were, that you are is all in here.”

“Right, I’ll pretend I believe that. You said I had a sister, is she older than me? Younger than me? What’s her name?”

He smiled at that. “She’s your twin sister, and I would hope you two have met already but her name is Catherine.”

“Wait, my best friend Catherine?” I asked disbelievingly. “There is no way she’s my sister, we don’t even look alike.”

“That’s because you’re not identical twins.”

“Still though, there’s no way that we could even be sisters. That’s just weird. I’m starting to think that maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Maybe you should go home and we can pretend this never happened. My weekend was supposed to be fun not weird. Can we stop this conversation now please?”

He looked a little disappointed as he looked down in resignation. “Sure, will you at least think about what we discussed?”

“Um, sure I guess.”

He gave a small smile and tiny nod before handing me the old fob watch as he stood to leave. I felt a small pang of guilt in my heart as I watched him go, I’m sure he had good intentions with what he was saying but it was all incredibly weird and really hard to accept. My bedroom door was left open when he walked out and I heard him and dad talking but I wasn’t completely paying attention to what they were saying. The most I remember from that was the front door opening and closing, letting me know that Mr. Smith had left.

I had waited a few more minutes just to be sure that he was gone before putting the watch on my shelf and going downstairs. My brother and sister came upstairs from the basement and the main floor came to life as they started rough housing a bit. I guess they didn’t really care much that a teacher from school was here not two minutes ago. Those two were weird but I loved them very much, they made me smile whenever they did weird things. Before I could say anything the two of them went to the backyard, probably to play some kind of game for a while until dinner was ready. Being the curious person that I am I followed closely on their tail, even though I had a pretty good idea what it was they were going to do. Since our backyard was mostly concrete, mom felt the need to do that about a year after we moved in, she also decided to give my little brother a basketball hoop for just because reasons. I wasn’t a very athletic person so I always stood on the side lines and rooted for whoever was winning in their game.

It went on like that for about two hours before mom and dad called us in for dinner. It was pretty quiet, I thought about bringing up what happened earlier that evening but I chose to keep it to myself for the time being. Nobody noticed how quiet I was when mom and dad asked how everyone’s day was, my little sister Jess was talking a mile a minute she always had something interesting to say it helped that she had really weird friends that were always up to mischief. My little brother took his turn in sharing what he did that day when Jess stopped to take a breath. When it was my turn I simply shrugged and said that nothing too exciting happened that day, no one pressed why it was so boring and I was grateful for that.

That day ended like any other normal Friday evening, except the whole teacher coming over for a bit was added to the mix. I tried my hardest to push that away while I sat in my room with our fluffy yet really old cat. He needed a shave soon and mom was currently setting up the appointment. I loved it whenever his fur was shaved, he was so fuzzy and warm afterwards and the groomers always put some sort spray or something on him to make him smell better than he did before he got shaved. He was happily purring away when I pet him, the conversation from earlier that day was playing through my head. The chances of aliens existing was a very real possibility, though I didn’t live there I kept up with the news that went on all the way in London. I wasn’t sure why, it just interested me and I wanted to keep up with what was going on. The stories they had always captivated me, I eventually started doing research on alien life and began stargazing on the weekends. I don’t know it was a new weird habit of mine that mom and dad actually started supporting. I guess they thought I was going to do something that had to do with astrology, I was thinking about it so that didn’t seem like a bad thing for them to assume.

As the daylight faded, I got up to shut off my lights and opened my curtains to look at the stars and see if there were any constellations at all that I’d be able to see from my window. If not then I could always go outside to the backyard and lay down on the ground. While I looked out my window my cat thought it would be a good idea to rub up against me and start meowing, his way of getting attention. I sighed, guess I was going to have to go to the backyard. Oh well, the mosquitoes hadn’t come back yet so stargazing wasn’t going to be very miserable that night. The night sky was really clear that night, I could see all the constellations that I knew. There were some pretty bright stars out that night, some planes and satellites passed by. I remembered when I was little I was certain they were shooting stars, that is until mom shed some light that my idea wasn’t completely right. I didn’t feel crushed or disappointed, actually I was a little surprised by that. That memory always made me laugh or smile.

I was out there for a pretty long time, if I had to guess I would say that it was about maybe ten or eleven o’clock. I probably should’ve gone inside sooner, either when the temperature started cooling down or my back was protesting at having to lay down on the concrete. As I stood up and stretched, I looked up at the sky one more time to take in how bright the stars shone. As I started to turn around I noticed a blinking light going across the sky. I thought maybe it was just a plane or maybe even a satellite, I had seen a lot of them earlier that night and simply shrugged it off as I turned to go inside and turn in for the night.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, so skipping over to the beginning of the week I was with my normal group of friends outside waiting for that stupid bell to ring and let us inside. I didn’t say anything to them about what happened on Friday, they would probably think I was crazy when I started to repeat what I was told. Then they would really think I need to see a therapist or something because my paranoia is getting worse I don’t know. I was still thinking about the conversation Mr. Smith and I had, I was kind of starting to believe him. I noticed how we looked a little similar to each other and how I look nothing like the rest of my family. What he said about me and Catherine being twins, I looked a little harder at her when she wasn't looking and noticed how only our noses looked the same. That was it when it came to similarities between us, maybe I needed a second opinion on that one but how do you approach that kind of subject? I mean, we’ve been mistaken for being sisters before and we’ve certainly talked about it after those kind of assumptions were made. We would always say how cool it would be if we were long lost twins or something sappy like that, you know like the stupid long lost sibling reunion you only see in movies.

I thought about bringing the subject up during lunch, when we would have more time to talk. Right now I kind of had to keep my focus on not running into anyone as the bell rang and we all went inside to warm up. My locker wasn’t very far from my first class, so I took my time getting my things. As I’m slipping my coat off and hanging it up inside my locker I felt hand touch my shoulder. I jumped, not really expecting anyone to come up behind me.

I turned around to see who wanted my attention and wasn’t very surprised at who I saw. “Oh, Mr. Smith you scared the daylights out of me.”

“Sorry, I wanted to ask you about Friday.”

“What about Friday?”

“Have you thought about what I said?”

Do I say yes or no? If I say no he might not leave me alone, if I say yes I give him some sort of satisfaction or relief knowing that I did. I opted to tell him the truth, I was extremely bad at lying anyway.

“Yeah I did, and I’m still finding it hard to believe that any of it could be true. I’m sorry, I really am but I just can’t bring myself to believe you. It’s impossible, I’m sorry.”

He looked a little heartbroken when I told him this, but he nodded as he said. “I understand, just don’t rule it out completely okay?”

“I’ll try.” I took a look at the clock. “I have to go, I’m going to be late. I’ll see you in history.”

“See you in history Tara.”

I gave him a small smile and tiny wave over my shoulder on my way to English. I felt bad for having to say that, he looked so hopeful. The truth is I did believe him a little bit but was having a hard time accepting this as fact and I kind of maybe wanted to talk to him or maybe mom and dad about it the next time we were alone. I just wanted to know a little bit more about what was going on and what I was trying to be told by them. Maybe mom and dad were ashamed of it and that’s why they didn’t try to talk to me about it over the weekend, I don’t know adults are weird. Still though, I planned on talking to Catherine about entertaining the idea that we actually are long lost sisters separated at the age of eight instead of immediately after we were born. I figured she wouldn’t believe me on the whole we’re also aliens kind of thing so I decided to keep that part to myself for the time being.

So the day played out like any other day, I went to lunch in the middle of math class and didn’t go to history until near the end of the day. While the math teacher was talking I was kind of staring at the clock. I know, I know, I should have been paying attention to the teacher but she was going over stuff I already knew how to do. It was child’s play really, the school actually learned that I can do math at a sophomore level but insisted that I take eighth grade math. Again our school system was weird but I didn’t complain really. The teacher didn’t seem to care that I wasn’t listening to her and kept droning on about circles or something. As the time got closer and closer to go to lunch everyone was starting to get restless and started doing what I was doing, watching the clock. Soon before the teacher knew it, someone shot out of their seat saying it was time to go to lunch. Our class nearly made a break for it to the door, not everyone in that class liked math very much.

The door by the cafeteria was crowded with students, it was ridiculous. I spotted Catherine the moment I was close enough and picked up my pace. I nudged her in the side when I was close enough and smiled at her, she smiled back and we started talking. I waited until we had our food and sat down to bring up the whole sister thing. I brought it up the minute we were settled.

“Hey Catherine, what would you do if I said I learned that we were twins?”

She seemed to think it over before answering. “I’d laugh a little and then agree with you on the idea. We do have the same noses.”

“Oh, you noticed that too. Okay cool, but I’m serious we really are twins.”

"Yeah? And who told you that?”

"My dad told me.”

“Didn’t you say once that your dad has an annoying habit of messing with your head?” She gave me a very questioning look.

“Yeah but I could tell he was telling the truth. He would never lie to me about something like that, ever.”

She sighed. “Alright, I believe you. I see how that could be possible, but I think maybe you should dig more into this. You know, make sure he’s not lying get your mom involved if you have to.”

“I will when I get home from school today. I’ll use my famous tell me or I’ll do something you won’t like look. That always works.”

Catherine simply nodded and we continued on with lunch like nothing really happened. I kind of like it when we do things like that, then certain things aren’t weighing down on my mind and I can act like everything is totally normal. It didn’t take long for our other friends to find us and sit down with us. We traded stories and talked about things that happened that day. Somebody laughed so hard they did a spit take, we all lost it when it happened. I had finally calmed down enough to get up and get the a few napkins to clean themselves off, after that we went outside to enjoy the warm air. If I’m to be honest right now, I was kind of nervous to go back inside and to history class. I know I had nothing to be worried about, all we were going to do really was learn about battles that took place in the eighteen hundreds or something like that. And if we were lucky we were going to act them out, but for some reason after what Mr. Smith and I talked about I doubt that’s going to happen any time soon today.

I’m going to skip over what happened in history class and kind of skip to sometime after school when I got home. I sat at the bar doing homework and mom was getting dinner ready. I stopped what I was doing and looked up, her back was facing towards me when I did. I set my pencil down and cleared my throat a little, my heart was pounding but I needed answers. So I summoned up whatever courage I had and asked her.

“Mom, was I adopted?” I don’t know why I asked that instead of what was in my head but it worked.

She stopped and turned to look at me, a curious look on her face as she responded with. “Why would you ask a thing like that?”

Oh crap, I didn’t know how to answer that. I had to think really hard about my answer. “Well, dad met my new history teacher on Friday at conferences and apparently they knew each other. I picked up on something between them and they obviously didn’t want to share what it was until we were somewhere more private. Mr. Smith, my teacher, gave this weird explanation about that gray watch I have in my room and said something about Catherine being my twin and I saw how that was possible today and I just. I don’t know, I’m starting to think maybe he was right. That I’m not a Heart, that I’m someone else and you and dad have been lying to me my whole life and I just want the truth.” For added effects I got my eyes to water and made my voice crack.

It worked for mom caved and told me everything. “Oh sweetheart. I’m so sorry, yes what your teacher told you is true. He met your father and I when we were in our early twenties before we were married. He came to us when you were eight years old, asleep in his arms. Your father and I didn’t take him to be a father himself but agreed to help him with looking after you. He gave us your watch and said that you were to believe that you got it as a souvenir from a shop somewhere out of town. We were told to not tell you anything, to let you believe that the life you’ve been living was the one you’ve always had.”

And there it was, there was my explanation. Everything my teacher had told me was backed up by my mom, well I guess she’s really not. But that was it, that was the truth I was after. Now that I had the entire truth, making the choice on what I wanted to do was much easier. I wanted to stay with this family, yeah they lied to me but they did it for my own safety. That showed that they really cared about me and didn’t care that I wasn’t their biological child. They raised me while Mr. Smith was doing God knows what that prevented him from being a father to me and Catherine. The very next day I spoke to him about that when class was over, he said I had a choice on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. When I told him I was staying here, he looked sad but understood. I told him that I appreciated him trying to be honest with me about who I was but I just didn’t feel ready to completely accept everything yet and needed time. And that was it.


	4. Chapter 3: Changing Decisions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My final exams are coming up this week so chapter updates may be a little slow. Please be patient, I'm doing my best. Anyway enjoy :)

So it’s about a year later after I met my biological dad and made my decision to remain with the family that raised me since I was eight. I still hadn’t told Catherine about being an alien, she would probably think I was on some hardcore drugs or something if I told her that. But I was very happy with the life I was living here, sure it had it’s ups and downs but that’s life for you. I thought about how different my life would’ve been if I agreed to go with him. At the end of the year he gave me a phone number to call if for some reason I ever changed my mind. I thought about calling it a few times, once or twice I typed the number in but stopped at the last second. I’ve done it a few times while at friends’ house, they would ask me what I was doing when they caught me staring at my phone screen. I would say nothing and erase the number before slipping my phone into my pocket.

Sometimes I would stare up at the night sky and wonder where Mr. Smith would be at that point in time. I would wonder if I would learn more with him than I would here in school. I thought about how likely that would be, I thought if I would have fun doing the things only others could imagine doing. Sometimes I would get some form of postcard from him saying when and where he was and a little bit of what he did. I kept them and kind of stuck them to my closet door, I wasn’t sure where else to put them and thought putting them there was a good idea. If I were being honest with myself I kind of missed him but at the same time I was a little glad he was out of my life. Or so I thought.

It’s Freshman year at high school for me and I’m chatting with friends as usual. Like most new high schoolers, we were a little excited to be starting high school. It meant new chances, opportunities to join clubs that make a difference in the school, options to take fun classes if one so desired and only four classes to sit through for about an hour and a half. Despite the length of class time it really wasn’t all that bad.

Anyway, we were talking about what we did over the summer and making plans to hang out that following weekend. As we were talking my paranoia started screaming at me, it was our lunch hour and I had the feeling of maybe I should look over my shoulder and make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary. Almost as soon as I turned my head around I saw that familiar hair style and suit but this time around it was brown which I thought was fairly interesting but a small feeling of dread settled itself in my stomach.

I turned back around and ducked my head muttering under my breath. “Oh shit.”

Catherine was sitting next to me and heard what I said and asked. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Remember the weird history teacher I had that I told you about back in eighth grade?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Look over your left shoulder.”

I didn’t have to guess if she did or not, I could hear hear her turn around in her seat for a brief moment before she turned back around and said. “He’s the new physics teacher, I think he just got hired.”

It took nearly everything I had to keep from screaming as I whipped around to face her and said. “What?”

“Whoa calm down it’s okay. Don’t you go to that class at the end of the day?”

“Yeah but still, he knows my face Catherine. Look, there’s something I didn’t tell you back in middle school when I got the idea in my head that were long lost twins or something. Please don’t think there’s anything wrong with me when I tell you this okay?”

She gave me a skeptical look. “Okay, what did you leave out?”

I took a deep breath. “So you know how I said I was going to look for answers when the idea of you and me being sisters was planted in my head? Well I talked to mom about it and she said that everything I was told was true and she said that Mr. Smith was really my biological father and that you really are my sister and that we’re not human we actually come from somewhere else and there was a war going on that he didn’t want us to get involved in so he made us human and apparently met our parents when we were younger or something and that’s why we have the family we have now. I could’ve been an only child if I wanted to be but I wanted a little brother or sister. And now do you see why I’m freaking out? I feel like he’s following me and I don’t know how to make it stop, please say you believe me.” I took a deep breath in when I finished summing up what I was told before middle school ended.

She just stared at me like I had grown a second head or something before saying. “Are you on drugs?”

“I wish I was on drugs but I’m not and I’m telling the truth. Catherine please, say you believe me.”

“I think maybe you’re suffering from a lack of sleep. Look, if it makes you feel any better I have physics at the end of the day with you. You won’t be alone in that class.”

“That makes me feel slightly better yeah.”

“In the mean time try not to think about it. Enjoy the rest of the time being before physics, you’ll be fine.”

The only thing I could do was nod, she didn’t believe me. She believed any story I told her so why wouldn’t she believe this one? It didn’t make any sense, I was being completely honest with this one. The only time I would pull a story out of my ass would be if I’m in a tight jam and needed to get out, she knows this. Whatever, I’m sure he would eventually have a word with her about the exact same thing. I thought maybe if she heard it from him then she would believe the whole story, but then again, with her, you never know what to expect. Skipping ahead to a few hours later, she and I walked into our last class of the day and sure enough Mr. Smith was our teacher. I chose to sit in the very back of the class and Catherine sat down at the table next to me. We had a few minutes before class started, I was trying my hardest to keep my face hidden and not be noticed. Too damn bad he was going to call role the minute the bell rang to alert class to start, I quietly groaned to myself and slid down in my seat.

More kids entered the room as passing time was coming to a close, I started sliding further down in my seat when Mr. Smith walked in. Another girl sat down in front of me, hiding me a little from view. I thanked whatever god was listening for that and sat up a tiny bit. The classroom was full by the time the bell rang, I was surprised that this many kids and one teacher could fit in here. But then again I’m sure the people who built the school weren’t stupid and knew that some classrooms had to be pretty big. With the girl sitting in front of me obstructing me from anyone’s view I was able to sit a little more comfortably in my seat, sliding up just a little more. I was also glad that role was being taken in alphabetical order, my last name was somewhere near the end of the alphabet and I was happy with that. I simply raised my hand when he called my name and we went over the rules and expectations for that class.

The whole class period was spent as a get to know each other kind of thing. We all kind of went around the room and said something about ourselves. I didn’t really want to say anything about myself and I just tried to write it off as I don’t really do anything interesting with my time outside of school. Everyone accepted that as a valid answer and we moved on to other people. After introductions he let us talk for the rest of the class period, I chose to talk with Catherine and make plans to do something after school since I didn’t have to be home right away. We decided to hang out at her place, it wasn’t too far a walk from the school and if I really wanted to I could walk home from her house even though it took an hour. I didn’t mind having to walk though, I liked it. It gave me time to be alone for a while and I didn’t have to worry about doing anything except make sure people who were driving know I was there.

During the last of our class time I was surprised that Mr. Smith didn’t come up to me and Catherine and try to talk to us. For some reason that sent up a bit of a red flag, then again I had really bad paranoia and sometimes it was wrong or misleading. So I opted to ignore it to the best of my ability even though maybe that always wasn’t a good idea. I’m rambling I know, it’s hard to remember everything that happened when I was about thirteen years old. We only had about twenty minutes left of class when we finished the whole introductions thing, talking with the people we wanted to was a good way to make the time go by faster and before we knew it the bell rang to end the school day. Mr. Smith was trying to say something over the din of us putting our stuff in our backpacks and walking out ready to meet our rides or walk home.

Catherine and I stuck by each other’s side while we walked through the crowded hallway. We came to open house at the same time so we were able to get our lockers somewhat next to each other. We talked while we put our books and other stuff away and collected the things we would need to take home with us. We had passed a particular group of girls complaining about the way the school was or something like that, after passing them Catherine had said something really funny and I completely lost it causing her to lose her composure too. Catherine was an only child in her family, so whenever I went to her house after school we were always alone which was pretty cool. Sometimes I wished I was an only child, but then I think about how lonely I would feel if I was.

We talked a little more about the physics teacher that I claimed was following me. She said something about me being overly dramatic and that I’m just being paranoid. I feigned offense and defended myself, explaining that there was nothing wrong with how my paranoia was. That made her laugh, I tried to keep my expression blank but couldn’t help myself and ended up joining her instead. We were so weird whenever we got together, it was fun though. Eventually though I had to get going, while walked out the door I told her that I would let her know when I got home and gave my final goodbye. I loved how it was still warm outside, there was a little wind but it wasn’t too bad. I had worn a blue fleece coat to school that morning, I tied it around my waist. I also never left the house with headphones in case I ran into a class that was boring or one that let the class listen to whatever they wanted while they worked on stuff. So with that in mind, I plugged them into my phone and cranked up the volume so I could drown out the sound of traffic and so that the walk back home wasn’t so quiet. There were two ways that I walked to get home, there was a long way and a shorter way even though the shorter way wasn’t all that short but I liked going that way instead of having to deal with the after work traffic.

Thinking back on it, I kind of wish I took the longer way instead. I was about half way home, maybe a little less when my paranoia kicked in again. I stopped walking and turned around at first I didn’t see anything, I simply shrugged it off and continued walking down the road. When I finished middle school, mom and dad knew I was going to want to be as independant as much as possible, especially when it came to being in high school. So as a birthday gift mom and dad gave me a small canister of mace that I kept with me at all times, even though I wasn’t supposed to have it at school. Oh well, what administration didn’t know won’t kill them. Anyway, I reached into my coat pocket for the little guy and held on tight to it as I walked. I occasionally glanced over my shoulder, still not seeing anyone or anything. I was starting to get a little scared so I picked up my pace and went a little faster, my heart was racing in my chest I thought it would jump out and leave me behind. Despite wanting to, I didn’t look back. I tried to keep my gaze forward and keep walking, I wasn’t that far from home and if I hurried I would be there soon. I didn’t look back until I felt a hand on my shoulder, without even thinking about it I pulled my hand from my coat pocket and sprayed whoever touch me in the eyes with pepper spray.

I immediately regretted doing that when I saw who I sprayed. I covered my mouth with the hand that wasn’t holding the pepper spray and said. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I had accidentally maced my physics teacher in the eyes, I felt so bad.

“Why do you have pepper spray?” He was making it worse by rubbing his eyes.

I pocketed the pepper spray and pulled his hands away from his eyes and explained to him. “Mom and dad gave it to me for my birthday, they knew I would claim independence in high school and would want to walk home from Catherine’s now that the weather is warmer. I’m really, really sorry. Let me help you get it out.” I didn’t know how to get pepper spray out of peoples’ eyes, that was something I was gonna have to google when we got home.

“You know how to fix this?”

“Yeah.” I was lying. “We just need to get home first and then I can fix it. We’re not that far, here take my arm.” I offered him my arm and led him home, making sure to go slow since he couldn’t see now. I felt awful about it and wish I thought twice before spraying him. Oh well, there wasn’t a lot I could do now about it, all I could do was flush his eyes out and find a reliable source on the internet to do that.

When we got home, I sat him down in a chair by the kitchen table and pulled out my phone to google how to fix it. There was one I found by using just plain old cool water and another that said saline solution was an option but there would be irritation for two hours or more. I decided to go with cool water, it said I might have to do that for about two to five minutes. While I got things ready I told him to just keep blinking and that I’d be right back. Tipping your head back over a sink isn’t very comfortable so I thought about grabbing a towel and draping it over his shoulders while I poured water in his eyes. I made many trips back and forth to the sink to fill up the cup I was using, during one of my trips to the sink Mr. Smith asked me.

“So, where are your parents?”

“In their room, I got the towel from their closet. They asked why I needed it and I was honest with them.” I was returning to continue with what I was doing.

“How did they take that?”

“They were surprised, but not mad. Tip your head back a little more, this may sting a little.”

“I’ve been through worse, first time someone’s maced me though.”

“I’m sure, you know I learned one more thing from mom and dad while I was getting the towel.” I grabbed a small washcloth that was sitting on the kitchen table to dab at his eyes a little. “They told me your name, not the one that you were using to fool administration.”

“They did?”

“Mmhm, said your name was Doctor. Doctor who exactly? And why Doctor?”

“Do you not like it?”

“No, I think it’s fine. Almost done here, just one more time and then I’ll grab a new washcloth to dry them off completely. Don’t touch them while I’m filling this up.” I turned to make one last trip to the sink, filling the cup about half way. As I returned I asked him. “What would you say if I said I was still thinking about what we talked about when I was twelve?”

“I’d say I would love to hear what you have to say.”

“Okay, there have been several times when I thought about calling that phone number you gave me. We’re done, you can lift your head. Do not touch your eyes, I’ll be right back.” I left to go get a fresh washcloth and kept talking. “I think I’ve finally accepted what you said. About me not being, me if that makes sense.” I came back and started to dry the area around his eyes off.

“That makes sense, go on.”

“I think I believe you now, after about a year of thinking about it and countless nights staring up at the night sky wondering where you were. Thinking about how different my life would be if I agreed to go with you. I don’t know, it’s still a lot for a thirteen year old to take in. There we go, now remember don’t touch them for a while.”

“It’s alright, I understand. How many times are you going to say that?”

“Until you stop, again I’m really sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking and I’ve should’ve caught myself.” I took the towel from around his shoulder and took it to the laundry room along with the small washcloths.

“It’s okay, you acted in self defense. Is that the first time you’ve used that thing?”

I popped my head out from the laundry room door as I answered. “Yeah, and that’s the first time I’ve had to flush someone’s eyes out.”

“You seemed like you knew what you were doing.”

“I really didn’t, I googled what to do. It gave me a few options, milk, dish detergent, saline solution, or water. Water seemed the most comfortable on the eyes so I went with that.”

He looked a little surprised when I admitted this. “Oh.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” He went to rub his eyes.

“Ah! Don’t touch them, let them relax. Here let me take a quick look at them.” I walked forward and pulled his head down to eye level. “They’re a little red but they should be fine. Mine does that every time I come into contact with something I’m allergic to.”

Now he really looked surprised. “You have allergies now?”

I let go of his head and walked back into the laundry room. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me. I’ve had them ever since I can remember, and I’m blind as hell also for as long as I can remember.”

“Oh Tara I’m-”

“I don’t need pity, I’m fine.” After doing a few things in the laundry room I stepped back out. “The main concern is you, are you okay after the whole macing thing?”

“Yes I’m fine.”

“Good, good. So, um, is that option to join you still open?”

He smiled brightly at me. “Always, we just have to convince your sister that we’re telling the truth.”

“Ha, better said than done. She needs like, physical proof that I’m not pulling her leg.”

“I’m sure that shouldn’t be too hard. You’re pretty clever when you want to be, I know you’ll come up with something.”

“Whoa, hey now, why do I have to be the one who has to try and convince her that she’s an alien?”

“She’s your sister.”

“She’s your daughter.”

“You see her more than I do.”

I opened my mouth to say something but I had nothing, he made a good point. I do see her more throughout the day than he did. But what was I going to say to get her to believe me? This was going to be hard, I also needed to know how long I had to try and get her to listen to me.

“How long do I have?”

“As long as you need, I know it won’t be easy.” He smiled at me.

I began to pace as I thought about what to say to her. I could feel his gaze on me, I tuned out the world as I paced more. I could just be upfront about it and tell her when we were alone, which was rare but I could do it. We talked before school started, in between classes, during lunch, and during our physics class together. More chances to try and get her to listen to me. I knew she wouldn’t believe me, but if I persisted maybe she’d finally cave. It all depended on her really, finally though I had an idea as to what to do.

“Okay, if I want her to listen to me I need to get her alone which isn’t too hard there’s a lot of places in that stupid school we can go in order to do so. It’s going to take days, maybe weeks of persistence to get her to believe me and I need to find a way to give her physical proof. I don’t know yet how I’m going to do that, I need more time for that. I’m literally pulling things out of my ass as I go.”

He nodded before he caught the last thing I said. “Oi, don’t swear.”

“My mouth my rules, anyway it could take a long time before I can get her to believe me so I need you to be patient can you do that?”

“Of course I can, do your best Tara. As for the physical proof, I’m sure you’ll think of something in your own time.”

“I’ll try at least, does she have a fob watch too?”

“Yes, just like yours. Except they say your names on them so you won’t get them confused.”

“They just have really weird designs on them, I didn’t see my name on it. Anyway, I may have to go digging through her stuff when she’s not in her room because I didn’t see it anywhere on a shelf or desk and convince her it holds secrets inside it.” I sat down on a chair at the table and groaned. “This is going to be hard.”

“I have faith in you Tara.” He was at eye level and had a reassuring smile. “You’ll do just fine.”

At least one of us had faith that everything would work out. I was seriously having my doubts, Catherine was a hardcore skeptic. She didn’t believe in the existence in aliens, she doesn’t believe the proof that people say they have. Probably because any pictures taken were of poor quality or it was zoomed in too close and gave off the illusion that something was there in the pictures. This was going to be more difficult, the only way I could give her physical proof was if I somehow changed my DNA to match Mr. Smith’s, or the Doctor’s I should say since that’s not his real name. It was clever though. This was going to be hard, oh well I was told to take all the time I needed to try and get her to listen to reason so at least I didn’t have a deadline to try and meet. Yay.


End file.
